Young Solar Analogs

Richard Gray (Appalachian State University)

A regular program of spectroscopic monitoring (Ca II K & H fluxes) of a set of 42 nearby young field solar analogs of roughly Hyades age (0.5 -- 1.5 Gyr) began two years ago on the 0.8-m telescope of Appalachian State University's Dark Sky Observatory. The goal of this long-term project is to characterize both short-term and long-term chromospheric behavior of these stars in order to better understand the early Sun and the space environment of the early Earth. With the advent of our own automatic Skynet telescope, and availability of other telescopes on Skynet, we have just commenced nightly photometric monitoring of these stars. Some preliminary results will be presented (rotational modulation of the Ca II K & H fluxes is clearly seen in our data for a number of stars), as well as a discussion of our instrumental S activity index, and transformation to the Mount Wilson system.